Company directors of a firm selling electrical goods have been jailed for a total of nearly seven and a half years following a fraud investigation by the North Yorkshire and York based National Trading Standards eCrime team. The scam was uncovered after customers complained that goods ordered online from the company’s Electrohut website were never Read ▶

A National Trading Standards spokesperson said: “Yesterday (Tuesday 12 December), officers from National Trading Standards conducted raids at a number of properties across the UK. These raids are part of an ongoing investigation looking into unfair practices in the secondary ticketing market and particularly the practices of businesses that buy and sell tickets in bulk. Read ▶

The BBC’s the One Show covered ‘free-trial’ scams, also known as subscription traps last Tuesday evening on 1 December at 7pm. The show featured an interview with Mike Andrews, the national coordinator for the National Trading Standards eCrime Team, who are co-ordinating the crack-down on free-trial scams along with Citizens Advice and other consumer protection partners. You can Read ▶

Delegates from America’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) visited their UK counterpart in North Yorkshire on Thursday 10 September to discuss action against scams blighting English-speaking consumers on both side of the Atlantic. The FTC’s Stacy Feuer and Sara DePaul and met officers from the National Trading Standards eCrime Team (NTSECT). Stacy is Assistant Director for International Read ▶

Which? the popular consumer online magazine has asked NTSeCT’s Mike Andrews to provide regular consumer advice to its members. The advice, in for the form of quarterly web content about the latest consumer scams, falls in line with the strong stance the Consumer Association’s respected Which? brand takes in protecting its members. Mike Andrews, the Read ▶

The problem of copycat websites has been in sharp focus over the last month thanks to the work done by Which?, the Government Digital Service and National Trading Standards. It’s certainly the case that more of us are aware of the issue than before, as well as knowing what to do to avoid being caught Read ▶

May 2014 is Scams Awareness month and the first week is all about about online scams. The National Trading Standards eCrime Team, in conjunction with Legal Beagles, want to highlight the dangers of buying cars online. We have worked with Legal Beagles to provide you with improved safety tips for buying cars online. So please find attached a new updated Read ▶

Scams Awareness Month is running throughout May to warn about the fraudsters preying on hard-up households Fraudsters are “picking the pockets” of up to four million people each year, finds new research from Citizens Advice. The charity warns that as people across the country struggle to make ends meet they are being sized up by Read ▶

This is an example page. It’s different from a blog post because it will stay in one place and will show up in your site navigation (in most themes). Most people start with an About page that introduces them to potential site visitors. It might say something like this: Hi there! I’m a bike messenger Read ▶

Training

The National Trading Standards eCrime Team is helping to build national capacity to tackle e-crime. We provide specialist open-source intelligence and Internet forensics training that meets the needs of local authority enforcement agencies and keeps them up-to-date with the latest online intelligence techniques. This training is available online on request along with specialist equipment to support investigations.

Investigations

We investigate a wide range of e-crimes, online scams and rip-offs of national significance, using the expertise of specialist trading standards officers. These officers can run national level 3 investigations in their own right but also support local Trading Standards officers with their own individual e-crimes investigations.

Forensics

We examine and gather evidence from a wide array of Internet connected electronic devices and storage media seized during investigations. Our state-of-the-art digital evidence unit has experience of extracting and analysing data from just about any type of desktop or laptop computer, tablet, mobile phone or storage medium. They've even taken evidence from an industrial embroidery machine!

Intelligence

The National Trading Standards eCrime Team uses an intelligence led focus to trading standards investigations. We work closely with a team of intelligence officers, analysts and researchers who collect and evaluate a wide range of internal and external e-crime intelligence sources.